The week between.

The is probably my favorite week of the year. Christmas is over, which is always a big sigh of relief. You either did what you were supposed to, or missed the boat. Either way, the deadline has passed. When we were kids my dad always took this week off and we spent a lof of time playing with toys and board games, watching TV, and eating junk food (i.e. food boxes!). As you get older, Christmas tends to include less toys and more money and/or gift cards. Which means post Christmas SHOPPING! And the kind that’s for yourself 🙂

Another staple of the week after Christmas is Cynthia’s birthday. She turned twenty-three on December 26th and, for years now, we’ve always had a little get together dinner in honor of her birthday. As we all went off to college the date became more of a reunion. This year we had a play date the next day (see how times have changed!) with Shayla and Ali. Karlin came and we mostly just were entertained by the kids (and our attempt to watch the horrendous I Know Who Killed Me). Shayla loves my mom, Ali’s highchair, Tony (whom she calls Pony!), and satsumas. Ali she is not so sure about. It should be interesting when she has a little brother or sister.

Ali, so innocently, torturing Shayla.

Shayla after raiding Alyssa’s room.

"Tickling."

Awwwwww.

Friday (the 28th) we came back home. We brought Alyssa with us and she’s staying until Thursday. The weather has been really sketchy the past two days…a surprising amount of hail. The really huge kind, that fall really hard, and wake you up at night. But, at least it’s exciting! Another highlight of the past few days was Alyssa’s soccer game. It was the second Ali’s been to and she was much more excited the time. She loved watching the girls and even yelled so loudly once that Alyssa heard her on the court! In the picture below is Marlee, my parents’ neighbor. If she could, she would probably adopot Ali just like they did our cat Clyde! Also note Ali wearing her new vest. The last picture was taken on our drive homethrough the mountains. There was a lot of snow (probably a foot at least!) but, lucky for us, the road was clear.